1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blind rivet magazine and, more particularly, to a magazine for use in continuously feeding blind rivets into and conducting sheared mandrels through a riveting tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The term "blind rivet" refers to rivets of the type which are accessible from only one side thereof during a riveting operation. Such rivets include a tubular sleeve having a generally annular preformed head at one end thereof. The sleeve has a mandrel extending axially therethrough and the mandrel has an enlarged head adjacent the other end of the sleeve. During the riveting operation, the rivet is axially inserted through aligned holes in the work pieces to be secured together by extending the mandrel head and the other end of the sleeve into such aligned holes until the head of the rivet sleeve contacts one of the work pieces. Thereafter, the head of the rivet sleeve is held against the one work piece while an axial force is exerted on the mandrel in a direction opposite to the force on the rivet sleeve head. This force on the mandrel pulls the enlarged head towards the rivet sleeve head, deforming the tubular sleeve on the inaccessible side of the work pieces, setting the rivet. Finally, the mandrel breaks at a point inside of the sleeve, trapping the mandrel head and a short length of the mandrel within the deformed sleeve and permitting removal of the major portion of the sheared mandrel.
Conventional blind riveting tools usually consist of a hand-held, gun-type assembly, either hand operated or power actuated, and include components suitably designed to carry out the foregoing operation. Such conventional tools have been manually loaded, with the rivet mandrel being positioned, by hand, in the nose of the tool, one at a time, for each riveting operation. In cases where a large number of rivets are to be installed, this has been an overly time-consuming process.
In my beforementioned copending application, there is disclosed an automatic loading blind riveter for automatically loading and setting blind rivets. Such blind riveter includes movable guide jaws and movable breaking jaws which are highly efficient in operation and permit the size of the nose of the riveter to be minimized. Thus, such riveter may be manipulated into the smallest areas encountered during field use. The construction of the riveter is highly simplified and efficient so that the tool is relatively inexpensive and has a long service life. The movable parts are driven by a pair of coaxial operating pistons which are both circular in cross-section and nested one inside the other. This arrangement eliminates bearings, contributing to the simplicity, inexpensiveness, and efficiency of operation.